This December’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will conclude the Skywalker Saga, bringing to a close the story based around Luke and Anakin and their legacy that first began way back in 1977. But that doesn’t mean the franchise as a whole is coming to a close as well, as Disney has every intention of taking the saga in brand new directions once Episode IX has come and gone.
Just last week, in fact, the studio announced three release dates for a trio of new Star Wars movies, with the first one hitting theaters on December 16th, 2022, the second on December 20th, 2024 and the third on December 18th, 2026. As for what these Star Wars films will be though, well, that’s where things get interesting.
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced earlier today that the next Star Wars movie to arrive after The Rise of Skywalker will be the first part in Game of Thrones‘ showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ trilogy. As for the other two dates, well, those haven’t been confirmed just yet, but we imagine they’ll see the release of the following two films coming from Benioff and Weiss.
Why is this so interesting? Well, it adds even more fuel to the rumors of Rian Johnson’s trilogy being cancelled. Or at least, placed on hold for the time being. For months now, we’ve heard reports that The Last Jedi director was no longer working on any future Star Wars movies, while other sources said Lucasfilm had just put his trilogy on the back-burner to focus on the one from Benioff and Weiss instead.
Whether any of that’s true or not remains to be seen, of course, but for now, we can at least confirm that the first post-Skywalker Saga movie to come from the Star Wars franchise will indeed be the first film in the Game of Thrones showrunners’ trilogy, and how exciting is that?